


Kiss them Often Under the Sea

by lost_in_a_good_book



Series: Seabathers of Sanditon [1]
Category: Sanditon (TV 2019), Sanditon - Jane Austen
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Genre Twist, Eventual Romance, F/M, Genre Bender, HEA, Happy Ending, Sidlotte - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-26
Updated: 2020-11-26
Packaged: 2021-03-10 07:14:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27729340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lost_in_a_good_book/pseuds/lost_in_a_good_book
Summary: Looking back, Charlotte thought, she should have recognized Sanditon’s secret. Including that of Mr. Sidney Parker. (Or, you never know what you will find in a secluded cove.)
Relationships: Charlotte Heywood & Sidney Parker, Charlotte Heywood/Sidney Parker
Series: Seabathers of Sanditon [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2028316
Comments: 34
Kudos: 72





	Kiss them Often Under the Sea

**Author's Note:**

  * For [RachelSanditon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RachelSanditon/gifts).



\- - - - -

Looking back, Charlotte thought, she should have discovered the town’s secrets earlier. Instead, she had only found the inhabitants’ behaviors unusual: The habit of sea bathing, talk of water on naked limbs, the men taking to the ocean without any clothes on, or their ability to swim like proverbial fish. (Even if a certain man, from what she had initially observed, only drank like one.) And the contradictory characters of the Parker brothers should also have been a clue, especially after the tongue-lashing she’d received for mentioning that. She should have recognized that really every gentleman in Sanditon had two natures.

Whereas the women - were kept apart, newcomers to the town such as herself and Clara having to be initiated to sea bathing; only residents such as Mary Parker bathed in the sea regularly. And even when any of the women were allowed in the ocean, they were clothed in concealing outfits, and escorted into the water by great machines and their human helpers.

\- - -

Charlotte, being Charlotte, had chafed a bit under such unfair restrictions. On only her second sea bath, she had refused the ridiculous red mob-cap, preferring instead to let the water flow freely through her hair. And this afternoon, after splashing in the shallows with her new friend Miss Lambe… while Charlotte did not yet feel secure enough to swim on her own, she continued down the beach on bare feet. She climbed over rocks and explored pools and the tide rack on the sand, until she came to a very secluded cove. And found, on one of its rocks, a pile of gentleman’s clothing.

Before she could realize what that meant, she heard a loud splash a few yards out into the ocean. Turning, she saw, to her horror, Mr. Sidney Parker arising from the waves. As he straightened, in mere seconds she took in his broad shoulders, muscular chest, well-defined waist and… a trail of **scales** leading down from his navel? With what looked like the body of a **fish** below his hips, where his thighs and unmentionables should be? How could that be?

Fascinated, she forgot all maidenly propriety and moved nearer to the apparition, until she was standing at the water’s edge.

As she moved towards him, Sidney Parker… the creature?... was calling out, rather bitingly, “Miss Heywood! Am I never - wait, what are you doing? You should be turning away!” 

For, almost entranced, she had murmured, “Oh - you’re beautiful!” as she walked a foot or so into the sea.

“Stop there!” he shouted, thrashing his tail (Charlotte supposed) to move a few yards farther out to sea.

“Why?” she asked innocently. “I just want to look at you.”

“Are you really so naive that you don’t know that you’re in danger?”

“From **you,** Mr. Parker, or whatever you are?” she scoffed. “Of what, another of your tongue lashings? I’ve already endured two and survived, and I think I put you in your place rather well at the luncheon.”

“Of far more than that,” he muttered. Then his face took on a sardonic air and he moved closer to her. Charlotte shivered a little at his approach, or perhaps it was a chill from a cloud crossing the sun and the breeze that had sprung up. And he was just staring at her appraisingly, somehow keeping his place in the water, as a light but cold rain also began.

“Well then?” she asked, trying to provoke him into explaining his remarks.

“Well then!” he responded wrathfully. With his scowl, the breeze suddenly became a gale, and the light rain a torrent; the waves turned angry and high, crashing like thunder on the beach. Charlotte shrieked, but then noticed that the storm only raged around him; a small circle around her somehow was unaffected. Then as suddenly as it had started, the storm just… disappeared.

“Who are you?” she whispered. **“What** are you?”

“I’m Sidney Parker - we’ve met,” he replied, though less sarcastically than was his wont with her. “As for my kind… we have had many names over the centuries, but the English now call us ‘mermen.’” 

“Why - ? How - ?!” she exclaimed in confusion.

“I know you want to ask so much,” the merman said, almost gently. “And there will be time for all that later. But now, Miss Heywood, you have seen me like this for too long. So you must make a choice.”

She just stared at him. He sighed and ran his hair through his hair (at least she supposed it was still hair); he looked almost nervous and... human. “I’ll explain, but let’s get out of the water, shall we? If you’d be so kind as to turn away for a short while?”

\- - -

Seated on the driest rock the merman? Mr. Parker? could locate, and wrapped in a blanket he had somehow provided, Charlotte listened to him in disbelief.

“We merfolk have been misunderstood and even persecuted throughout our history. So we long ago decided that if someone who is not one of us discovers our secret, we would give such a person a choice - lose all memory of our encounter and everything related to it, or become one of us.”

“That seems an easy choice,” she finally responded. “If your kind have been persecuted, why would someone prefer to become one of you, if the alternative is merely to lose one brief memory?”

He gave her a crooked half smile. “Would that it were that simple! No, when we remove the memory, it also removes anything related to it in the person’s mind. In your case, it would remove your ability to find beauty in the physical world, to enjoy the sensations of the sea, and so forth. You would even find the gentleman of Sanditon repugnant to you - but you would not know why your feelings had changed. Though perhaps the “gentlemen,” at least, would not be a great loss to you now….”

“Perhaps not,” she said with a small chuckle, then sighed. “But I believe I would miss the other aspects you mentioned. Never again to see the world as beautiful…!” She looked at him directly then and asked, “The people who choose to forget - afterwards, are they still happy?”

Sidney Parker (for she could not help but think of him by that name now that he had a man’s legs again) frowned and answered slowly, “In their everyday lives, I think so, yes. But I also think they can sense that something is missing from their experiences.”

“And the people who choose to join you - are they happy?”

His expression lightened. “I do believe so. It is not always an easy existence, but it has many joys.” He continued, a little shyly, “Do you like sea bathing?”

“I do!” she said, then she frowned, due to what that might mean. Sidney did not say more, but only watched her shifting expressions as she weighed her choices.

After a while, he had to speak, in all fairness. So he plunged ahead and said, trying to keep his tone normal, “There is one more factor you should consider, if you are thinking of joining the merfolk.”

“What is it?”

Tersely, he answered, “You and I will need to marry.”

\- - -

She was surprisingly quick as she fled from him, despite her bare feet and half-soaked skirt. Sidney stumbled after her. It was always hard to walk as a man after time in the sea, and he was having to run over slippery rocks. But his longer legs and knowledge of this beach gave him the advantage.

“Wait, wait, wait!” he cried as he reached her and took her arm. “Miss Heywood!”

She wheeled on him, pulling her arm from his grasp. “Is this what you do for entertainment, Mr. Parker? Amuse yourself at young ladies’ expense? And I almost believed your tale!”

“My tale!” he exclaimed. “How else would you explain my **fishtail,** then?”

“I do not know!” she exclaimed in return. “Perhaps I was too much in the sun today!” Suddenly there were tears in her eyes. “Or perhaps I am sleeping and this is a nightmare!”

“It’s quite real, I assure you,” Sidney said drily. Then, moved by her overflowing eyes, he added, “Just as I am quite real.” He reached out to her slowly and took one of her hands, then gently enclosed it with his other hand. “Can you feel my warmth?”

She nodded but would not look at him. He stepped closer, closer to her, and she allowed him; until he was just near enough. Then he bent and brushed his lips lightly against her cheek, before murmuring in her ear, “And do you have dreams like this?”

He heard her gasp, before she answered in a low voice, “No.”

He moved his head to look directly at her downcast eyes. “So, can you believe me?”

She whispered, “Yes….” Though then she looked up into his eyes and asked, “But - marriage? We barely even know each other, and what we have seen, we do not like!”

“That is a point,” he conceded, but with a small lift of one corner of his mouth. “That was before you knew my secret, however.”

“Why should that make a difference?”

“It puts me in your power.”

“How?”

“You have the power to let me live a happy life, if you choose to join us. You see, when a person rejects one of the merfolk, we are no longer respected by our community, for we have failed to persuade. But when we can bring someone into the community, it is a truly joyful event.”

Charlotte was still frowning at him. He said, becoming angry again, “So it is down to you. You can join us, and you and I can live joyfully. Or you can go back to your life, and both you and I will be diminished in our worlds. When you decide, come back to the cove.” Abruptly, he turned and started away.

“What prevents me from leaving and just going back to my life as it was?” she called after him.

He waved one hand in a quick spiral, and the clouds let loose a tremendous thunderstorm in all directions - except the one that would take her back to him.

\- - -

Sidney kept his gaze out to sea even as she rejoined him on the rocks. 

“I still don’t understand - why marriage?”

He shrugged, still not looking at her. “I suppose it’s just one of the rules for when humans and merfolk cross paths. It’s been that way as long as anyone knows. Perhaps it’s meant to create a greater bond between the new merfolk and the community, so they, and we, feel that they truly belong.”

“What about…,” she took in a deep breath, “... children?”

Now he turned to her, startled. Awkwardly, she continued, “I come from a large, and happy, family. And I want very much to have such a family of my own one day. How… that is to say…?” By this time she was quite pink.

He suppressed his urge to laugh. “Well, they happen in a usual sort of way. Which I, er, assume you know at least a little about, growing up on a farming estate as you did.” (Here he heard a small “oh!” next to him, followed a giggle, quickly suppressed.) His lips twitched, but he continued, “So, to answer what I assume are your questions: yes, we have children, and yes, we love them just as landfolk do. And as for one you haven’t asked - they would be born merfolk. But other than a passionate love of the sea, they are just like the children you know.”

“Will you - did you - do you even **like** children?” she blurted out.

Now he had to laugh. “I do! If there were time enough, I would take you to Mary and Tom so they could swear to how much I enjoy playing with my nephew and nieces!”

“If there were time…?”

“You must make your choice before the tide turns. And that will be in less than one hour.”

“So soon!” she exclaimed. She stood and shook out her skirts before she moved away towards the water. He watched as, frowning, she picked up a handful of beach pebbles, selected a few, and began trying to skim them across the surface. After she’d made a few tries, biting her lip in concentration, Sidney smiled his half-smile and moved one finger. The next pebble that she threw skipped perfectly across the waves, which moved just as if they’d been placed there for that purpose.

As she turned back to him, he saw in her eyes that she knew what he’d just done, and then she smiled - really smiled - at him. She came up the beach until she was standing before him, when her smile faded and she asked earnestly, “Will I suit?”

“Will you suit?” he echoed, feeling a bit befuddled.

“Yes,” she replied, “Please tell me before I lose my courage! Will I do, as one of you and as… your wife?”

Sidney smiled. “You will do very well.”

\- - -

The farther out they went, the colder the water became, until Charlotte started shivering.

Sidney turned her towards him, then asked gently, “Do you trust me?”

She forced out an answer - “I do, though goodness knows why!”

He chuckled, but said, “Good. Now, I need to hold you.” He put his arms around her, carefully, and drew her close, until her body was against his. “Are you warmer now?”

She nodded, surprised; because not only was she in a man’s arms, but his body was quite hot to her touch. 

“Take steady breaths,” Sidney instructed. After she had done so for a time, he continued, “Now, we are going to go even farther out, then under the waves and stay there for a while.” 

At her shocked look, he moved one of his hands to her face, whispering, “Trust me, remember?” 

After a pause, she nodded. 

He smiled. “Good. You will feel for a few moments as if you need to breathe, but resist that; keep your eyes on me and let me do what is needed, even if it startles you. Is that all right?”

She nodded again, reluctantly. He raised one eyebrow in inquiry, so she whispered, “Yes; that is all right.”

“Excellent. Now, hold on to me!”

Charlotte almost screamed as he closed his arms around her even more tightly, lept up, then twisted and shot them both under the water, diving deep. She could feel the power of his tail as it thrashed, pushing them forward and then up again and out of the water. They went several feet above the waves, then dove again. He took them up and under, up and under, until when she could glimpse the shore, it was quite distant.

“This time, we’ll be staying down!” Sidney shouted as she watched the sky disappear. His tail drove them deeper and deeper, until he righted their bodies. They were standing on sand, the surface far, far above them. 

She felt panicked, wanting to **breathe;** but Sidney raised one hand to her head and turned it to him. He held her gaze until she calmed, then his look changed.

She felt his thumb begin to caress her cheek. His touch lingered there while he moved his face closer and closer to hers. He came so near that she almost drew away, but his fingers at the back of her head held her in place. 

His eyes had been fixed on hers, but now he lowered them. She wondered for a moment at the small bubbles on his eyelashes, when suddenly his eyes were on hers again, his pupils wide and dark. She had never been looked at in this way before, and, disconcerted, she bit her lip. Then she felt his thumb on her mouth.

It teased her lower lip from between her teeth. It traced the shape of her upper lip, from corner to corner and back again. Then it moved, gently, between her lips; parting them and caressing the sensitive skin inside. She felt her breathing quicken, while a trail of bubbles flew up from her mouth.

His thumb stopped at the corner of her mouth, only to be replaced by his lips. They brushed hers, pulling away then quickly returning, seeming to come at her from every direction. Next, he let his lips linger on hers, moving against them until she could not help but return his kisses in kind, making the water swirl around them. At that, he brought his other hand to her face, his fingers tangled in her hair. His thumbs parted her lips, and as she opened her mouth to him, his tongue suddenly touched hers.

\- - -

She felt the way she had the first time she’d drunk champagne - as if her blood had bubbles and her ears were full of fizzing sounds. She felt dizzy, though how could she be when Sidney was holding her upright and they were standing on the seabed? But it was a delicious dizziness, tasting of sweetness and salt. 

Around them, the water began to roil.

\- - -

She saw flashes of what was happening amidst the whirling water and sand. Her hair, growing longer and ropier until it looked like seaweed. Her shift, falling away, baring her breasts to Sidney’s wide gaze before scales enclosed them like shining stays. Her legs and feet, coming closer and closer together, the scales flowing down them as they merged. And at last, the pulsing growth of fins from the end of her new tail.

She convulsed, then all was darkness.

\- - -

Her first awareness, before her sight returned, was of Sidney’s hands gently caressing her hair. When she could at last open her heavy lids, he was watching her with a look of amazement. He moved his hands to her hips and stroked the new scales there gently. But it tickled her, and she thrashed away from him.

She found herself suddenly quite far from him, and looked down in surprise at her tail. Then she grinned mischievously before shooting back towards her merman and husband-to-be. 

\- - -

When they finally surfaced at the beach, they did so in moonlight. That made Charlotte feel more comfortable with her first change, standing up naked from the sea. Behind her, she could just hear Sidney whisper, “Gods above - you are so beautiful!”

She smiled at him over her shoulder, then suddenly shivered as her wet, human-again skin felt the wind from the land. “What now?” she asked.

“First and foremost, get dressed - oh, I should have warned you how cold it can feel after you change back!” he said, his teeth chattering as they waded towards shore. “Then to Sanditon; give Tom and Mary our news, decide what and when to tell your parents, and arrange a coach to Gretna Green for the morning.”

“Gretna Green!” she exclaimed.

From behind her, she could tell that Sidney was grinning as he replied, “We can have a traditional human wedding afterwards, but **our** tradition is to make things legal as quickly as possible!”

\- - -

They walked carefully along the clifftop path towards town.

“May I ask you something,... Charlotte?”

She nodded, her eyes wide, seeming to expect yet another surprise from him.

He fixed his eyes on the path they were walking as he asked, “What made you decide as you did, when it meant you would have to marry me?” He could not, would not look at her for her answer.

“At first, I simply could not bear the thought of losing all sense of beauty. And I love the sea!”

“And then…?” he prompted, trying to keep his voice level.

“And then - you were civil to me.”

“Civil!” he said, laughing in spite of himself.

“More than civil, really, even kind!” she said hastily. “When this will mean a great deal of change for you too! Especially, em, having children.”

“And a wife?” he teased.

She blushed as she replied, “I assume that marriage will be a great challenge - that is, change for both of us!”

“I expect that you are right in that assumption - for once. Though fate has ways of surprising us.” He smiled down at her, a little crookedly, for he was already surprised by the strength of his new feelings.

Charlotte smiled back at him as she tucked her hand through the crook of his arm and said, “Well, then, Sidney: It will be the greatest adventure of our lives!”

\- - - - - - -  
\- - - - - - -

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to the tag and prompt on Twitter from @rachelsanditon!
> 
> The title is from “The Merman” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
> 
> Comments, kudos, and constructive feedback are always most welcome!


End file.
